Friday, December 26, 2008

Sung most often as a Christmas carol but wonderful for any time of the year. The The hymn is composed by Elizabeth Poston and sung here by the Choir of Kings College, Cambridge (1993) ...Here are the words

Jesus Christ the Apple Tree

The tree of life my soul hath seenLaden with fruit and always greenThe tree of life my soul hath seenLaden with fruit and always greenThe trees of nature fruitless beCompared with Christ the apple tree

His beauty doth all things excelBy faith I know but ne'er can tellHis beauty doth all things excelBy faith I know but ne'er can tellThe glory which I now can seeIn Jesus Christ the apple tree.

For happiness I long have soughtAnd pleasure dearly I have boughtFor happiness I long have soughtAnd pleasure dearly I have boughtI missed of all but now I see'Tis found in Christ the apple tree.

I'm weary with my former toilHere I will sit and rest a whileI'm weary with my former toilHere I will sit and rest a whileUnder the shadow I will beOf Jesus Christ the apple tree.

One is very often asked at present whether we could not have a Christianity stripped, or, as people who asked it say, 'freed' from its miraculous elements, a Christianity with the miraculous elements suppressed. Now, it seems to me that precisely the one religion in the world, or, at least the only one I know, with which you could not do that is Christianity. In a religion like Buddhism, if you took away the miracles attributed to Gautama Buddha in some very late sources, there would be no loss; in fact, the religion would get on very much better without them because in that case the miracles largely contradict the teaching. Or even in the case of a religion like Mohammedanism, nothing essential would be altered if you took away the miracles. You could have a great prophet preaching his dogmas without bringing in any miracles; they are only in the nature of a digression, or illuminated capitals. But you cannot possibly do that with Christianity, because the Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion being that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal, came into nature, into human nature, descended into His own universe, and rose again, bringing nature up with Him. It is precisely one great miracle. If you take that away there nothing specifically Christian left. There may be many admirable human things which Christianity shares with all other systems in the world, but there would be nothing specifically Christian. Conversely, once you have accepted that, then you will see that all other well-established Christian miracles--because, of course, there are ill-established Christian miracles; there are Christian legends just as much as there are heathen legends, or modern journalistic legends--you will see that all the well-established Christian miracles are part of it, that they all either prepare for, or exhibit, or result from the Incarnation. Just as every natural event exhibits the total character of the natural universe at a particular point and space of time; so every miracle exhibits the character of the Incarnation. Now, if one asks whether that central grand miracle in Christianity is itself probable or improbable, of course, quite clearly you cannot be applying Hume's kind of probability. You cannot mean a probability based on statistics according to which the more often a thing has happened, the more likely it is to happen again (the more often you get indigestion from eating a certain food, the more probable it is, if you eat it again, that you again have indigestion). Certainly the Incarnation cannot be probable in that sense. It is of its very nature to have happened only once. But then it is of the very nature of the history of this world to have happened only once; and if the Incarnation happened at all, it is the central chapter of that history. It is improbable in the same way in which the whole of nature is improbable, because it is only there once, and will happen only once.--C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Sunday, Dec. 21st , Advent IV -Holy Communion, Rt. I. Greening of the church to follow immediately after the service.Wednesday, December 24th, Christmas Eve, Holy Communion, Rt. II - 6:00 pm with caroling and nativity. This year please bring a gift (in addition to yourself!) for the Christ Child. We are collecting unwrapped baby gifts (items for newborns - blankets, clothing, diapers, wipes, etc.). These will be given to two organization who help women with unplanned pregnancies - the Florence Crittenton Home and the Lowcountry Crisis Pregnancy Center.

Sunday, January 4, Epiphany Celebration and Bonfire- 4:00 PM at Palmetto (directions will be available at church). Come, bring a covered dish and your Christmas Tree.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Yesterday somebody gave me a button that read “It’s OK to say, Merry Christmas.” I’ve been thinking about that button. I suppose that its main purpose is to let a fellow Christian at the cash register know that they can say Merry Christmas instead of “Happy Holidays” or some other such sentiment.

I put it on and wore it and will do it again when I go shopping – but, I won’t be wearing it here until Christmas Eve and then I’ll be wearing it for the 12 days of Christmas You see, I still am needing an Advent…and the church is still in Advent. We are in the place of getting ready to welcome a guest, of preparing our hearts for not only the remembrance of the birth of the Christ Child but also getting ready for the day and hour that we will meet him face to face….whether it is when he returns on the Day of the Lord or when we die.

It’s so easy to get swept up into some kinds of getting ready for Christmas: getting a tree, decorating the house, baking, getting gifts, sending out cards, visiting with folks we love, or maybe getting ready for travel. All of these are perfectly good things to do, but we risk missing some real opportunity if we don’t take the time to think about the spiritual significance of Christmas. We miss the opportunity to get in touch with our deepest longings and notice the signs that the prophets hold up for us. It’s a little bit like getting to work or showing up for school and realizing that you had forgotten that a major project was due that day – Just forgot…Head was too full of all kinds of other stuff or other things and people in our environment were clamoring for (and getting our attention), while the quiet but most important thing slipped by.

John the Baptist tells us something important today…Jesus called him the greatest man who ever lived…does he loom that large for you? Let’s think about some possible sources of John’s greatness. I want to look at just three

1. He knew who he was --- “I am not the messiah” …He was the forerunner – the one sent ahead . With all of Jerusalem coming out to be baptized, with all of the sensation and public attention he was attracting, it would have been easy to want to hold on to that limelight as along as he could….but he knew who he was and he acted on it…he was faithful to the call of God in his life….I like this little quote from Goethe…. “Never by reflection, but only by doing is self-knowledge possible to one.” [1] Contrary to what our culture teaches ("Look within , Grasshopper"), we learn who we are and what we are to be about by doing – not by sitting around and peeling back the layers of our inner onion.

So, let me ask you an Advent question --- what is God’s call on your life? What work has he given you to do? How are you doing?

2. John the Baptist had the eyes of faith to be able to recognize Jesus…how is your spiritual vision these days – do you see the signs of God at work around you?

3. Instead of envy, joy --- instead of living out of a place of limited good (there’s only so much limelight to go around) he was filled with joy at the prospect of simply being the friend of the bridegroom – (Remember wedding customs about friend announcing)…are we willing to step aside from the me first , ego driven individualism of the culture surrounds us?

So – here are some Advent questions we can ponder to get ready…

What calling has God placed in my life and am I living it out faithfully…and if we discover we are not, not, then confess it and ask for God’s help and guidance…

Am I in enough of a relationship with Jesus Christ that I am able to see with the eyes of faith? If we are not, then pray for a new start at Christmas…

Am I willing to give way and let Jesus Christ be the Lord of my life instead of my self? Are we willing to let him be the bridegroom? If not then confess, and say with John – Lord, grant that we might decrease and he increase.

If we can reflect about these questions – then, we will be truly getting ready for Christmas…not for commercial Christmas but for God’s Christmas. May God bless you in your Advent discernment. Amen.***********************************************************************************